


You're Important, Shiro

by mysticmajestic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Can be read as Shance or gen!, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sharing a Bed, Team as Family, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 09:32:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14305806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticmajestic/pseuds/mysticmajestic
Summary: After a hellish mission, Shiro somehow completes his rounds around the Castle and then collapses in bed. Only, it's Lance's bed he's fallen into.





	You're Important, Shiro

It had been a rough few days.

Shiro barely had enough strength in him to complete his rounds around the floor of the Castleship that the team occupied. Team Voltron had been mobilised and fighting for the past five days with very little time to stop and rest. He doubted anyone had gotten more than maybe a handful of hours total, all whilst sitting in their pilot chairs which wasn’t the most comfortable place for naps.

Galra forces had tried to undermine the Coalition by attacking three planets at once. To deal with them, Voltron went one way, and the Rebels and the Blade of Marmora took the other two planets. But the Galra had been out in droves with more weapons and artillery than the Rebels and the Blade could handle. Even Voltron had struggled to rescue their assigned planet before they’d had to turn around—no time to stop and meet with the locals like usual—and take off to help their allies.

When he got back into the Paladin Corridor, his aching legs gave out from under him and he pitched sideways into the wall. He pressed his cheek to the cool steel, letting it sooth the sickening throb inside his skull that made him feel like his bones would split in half and let his brain slide out and onto the floor. It had been a long time since he’d been this tired.

He shuffled down the hallway until he reached his door. Slapping his hand against the lock panel, he made a beeline straight for the bed and fell in it. He was done with being conscious; he needed at least three days to recover from this bullshit. He was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

 

* * *

 

When someone had unlocked his door, Lance had stirred. A hand went under the pillow for his bayard where he’d learned to keep it after an unfortunate incident where he’d left it in the kitchen the previous night and had to double-back on an emergency mission to go get it. But never mind that, who the hell was coming into his room at this time of night? If Allura had some kind of new mission for them, she was without doubt sadistic—but then why not raise the alarms?

A hulking figure lurched into the room, their face cast into shadow by the dull blue light lingering in the hallway. They were uncoordinated, tripping over a shoe in the middle of the floor, windmilling their arms to keep their balance until they fell face-first into Lance’s bed, stole his pillow, and did not move again.

“What the fuck?” Their back was to Lance so he had to gingerly put his hand on the person’s side and lean over them to catch a glimpse of their face in the scant seconds before the door closed and took the only light source with them. To his surprise, it was Shiro.

Shiro was in his bed.

 _Shiro_.

In Lance’s _bed_.

But what was he doing up? Lance asked himself, and the giddiness faded. Everyone went to bed hours ago. Don’t tell me he went and did his rounds instead of going to get some rest.

Despite Shiro believing that no one knew about his midnight rounds, or the fact that he took a fair amount of space coffee beans from the jar to the point where Hunk was considering hiding it from him, everyone knew. Shiro just couldn’t remember all the times he’d been caught because he’d always collapse halfway through and was liable to mumble things.

“Can’t sleep; nightmares” turned into “Can’t sleep; need to inspect the Castle. It’s too big” turned into “Can’t sleep; I’ll hate myself even more if I let something happen to you guys. You’re all my team. I can’t fail you like I failed my old one.”

It was an unspoken agreement that whoever found Shiro took care of him, and they couldn’t wake the other Paladins in doing so. And they would _never_ tell Shiro. If he found out what the team was doing for him, he’d flip and harm himself in a different way. The Paladins might not find out about until it was too late. Lance had never seen anyone so self-sacrificing before. Survivor’s guilt and PTSD had sunk its claws in deep.

No, they’d take care of him silently. Shiro did _everything_ for them, so they could do this one thing for him.  

Lance ran his fingers through Shiro’s hair, smiling sadly when Shiro sniffled and nuzzled deeper into the pillow. Looked like it was his turn to take care of Shiro tonight.

Carefully climbing out of bed, Lance turned on the lights to get a better look at him.

And oh man, Shiro was wrecked. He still had his armour on from the waist down—Lance made a mental note to ask someone to go track down the other half in the morning—and so Lance set about taking it off.

Shiro’s feet were swollen and bruised, veins protruding alarmingly from the skin. How he’d even managed to walk was beyond Lance. He could only assume that Shiro’s legs were just as bad underneath the skin-tight suit. Tears prickled Lance’s eyes as he manoeuvred Shiro underneath the blankets, taking the time to smooth the white forelock from Shiro’s face. When would the universe give this man a damn break?

Tomorrow morning, Lance decided as he turned the light back off and carefully climbed back into bed, he would wake up early and fucking pamper Shiro the best he could. Or the best he’d be allowed, he should say. Breakfast in bed, a massage—but if Lance can’t give Shiro a massage, then he’d draw him a hot bath with the lavender scented bath salts he’d borrowed from Allura and never used.

When the other Paladins awoke, Lance would get them in on this plan. ‘Shiro Appreciation Day’—there was no way they’d refuse to do something special for the man who’d give them everything he had and more to keep them all safe and happy.

Yeah, Lance thought, pillowing his head on his arm, slowly drifting back to sleep. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do…

 

* * *

 

When Shiro awoke, he felt…not well-rested, but better than he had last night. As he cracked open his eyes, he was glad he’d made it back to his own—wait, this was not his room. He didn’t have this much stuff in his bedroom. In here there were an assortment of seashells, photographs, bottles of skin products, along with a few clothes that were definitely not his strewn about.

Oh shit, oh no. He was in _Lance’s_ room.

How did he get here? Shiro threw the blankets off and went to stand, only to cry out and fall back to the mattress as an incredible amount of pain shot up his legs. In the same moment, the door whooshed open and Lance walked through.

“What are you doing?” Lance asked sternly. “Lie back down. You’re not going anywhere today.”

“Lance, I’m sorry for apparently stealing your bed, I—”

It was then that he noticed the tray of steaming-hot food Lance was carrying in his arms, wafting in a mouth-watering scent of Hunk’s cooking.

“Lie down,” Lance said again. “You’re not in any condition to go anywhere today.”

“Look, just get me to the pods and—”

“Nope,” said Lance, setting the tray down on Shiro’s lap. “This is ‘Pamper Shiro Day’ and there’s nothing you can do about it. You’ve probably got tendonitis and can’t walk, so that means you can’t get away from it.”

“Yeah!” said Pidge’s voice, and Shiro jumped. She stood in the doorway with Hunk and Keith, all three of whom had their best stubborn expressions on their faces. “You do so much for us, Shiro, so why don’t you let us do the same for you?”

“That’s different—”

“How?” Keith jutted his chin out, eyes flashing. “How is it different?”

“It’s different because you guys deserve it—”

“And so do you,” interrupted Hunk. “You do everything around here. Not only do you lead us, but you take care of us too. We can come to you with any problem and you’ll do your best to help fix it. Man, you’re like a big brother to me—”

“Me too!” said Pidge, and Keith nodded furiously in agreement.

“—and so I want—we want—to do this to thank you for everything.”

Flustered, Shiro tried to stammer out a reason as to why he didn’t deserve it, would never deserve that kind of kindness, but his tongue refused to cooperate with him.

“Shiro,” said Lance quietly. “Let us in. We’re not just you’re team, we’re your family. So let us take care of you like a family does.”

Tears burned Shiro’s eyes and his throat felt tight. He didn’t dare try and speak like this, and so he pursed his lips and nodded, willing himself not to cry in front of them.

“Good, thank you,” said Lance. He sat on one side of Shiro, Keith came to sit on the other and wrap an arm around Shiro’s shoulders. Pidge crawled to sit behind Shiro, and Hunk sat down on the ground at his feet. They all hugged him as best they could. “Eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”

 _Thank you guys,_ Shiro thought, as he did as he was told, hoping he could somehow silently transmit how grateful he was to them. His family. _Thank you for everything._

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @mystic-majestic!
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!


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